By AMANDA SEITZ

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. offered no new details Wednesday about his massive restructuring of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the day after thousands of layoffs ricocheted through its agencies, hollowing out entire offices around the country in some cases.

Kennedy’s silence is prompting questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike, with a bipartisan request for President Donald Trump’s health secretary to appear before a Senate committee next week to explain the cuts.

As many as 10,000 notices were sent to scientists, senior leaders, doctors, inspectors and others across the department in an effort to cut a quarter of its workforce. The agency itself has offered no specifics on which jobs have been eliminated, with the information instead coming largely from employees who have been dismissed.

“This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy said on social media, in his only comments addressing the layoffs so far. “It’s a win-win for taxpayers, and for every American we serve.”

The move, the department has said, is expected to save $1.8 billion from the agency’s $1.7 trillion annual budget — about one-tenth of 1%.

The department has not released final numbers but last week said it planned to eliminate 3,500 jobs from the Food and Drug Administration, 2,400 jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 1,200 from the National Institutes of Health. Public health experts and top Democrats have raised alarms about how the deep cuts — about 25% of the department — will affect food and prescription drug safety, medical research and infectious disease prevention.

Still unclear is why certain jobs were eliminated and others were spared.

As the cuts were underway on Tuesday, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, sent a letter to Kennedy calling him before the Senate’s health committee. In a statement, Cassidy said Kennedy’s appearance is part of his promise to appear quarterly before the committee.

“This will be a good opportunity for him to set the record straight and speak to the goals, structure and benefits of the proposed reorganization,” Cassidy’s statement said.

Rep. Diana Harshbarger, a Republican from Tennessee, said the House’s health subcommittee also has questions about job cuts.

“We’re going to find out what the layoffs were all about — 10,000 — we didn’t know it,” Harshbarger said Wednesday at a health care forum hosted by Politico. “We’re going to find out what the premise was for those layoffs.”

At the same event, special government employee Calley Means, a close adviser to Kennedy who is working at the White House, defended the cuts. He struggled, however, to offer an explanation on how the overhaul will improve Americans’ health. Some of his claims were met with shouts and hisses.

“The system is really on the wrong track,” Means said, later adding that he wants to see more research from the NIH.

Politico’s Dasha Burns pressed Means on how the NIH would conduct more research with fewer employees at the agency, which had fired more than 1,000 NIH scientists and other staff before this week’s layoffs. Trump’s Republican administration has yanked hundreds of NIH grants and delayed hundreds of millions of dollars in continuing or new research funds including for studies of cancer and to keep Alzheimer’s centers around the country running.

Means responded by asking: “Has NIH funding been slashed?”

This story has been corrected to show the savings is about one-tenth of 1%, not about 1%.

Associated Press writer Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed.

By Dr. Trisha Pasricha
Special to The Washington Post

Q: I feel so rushed during my doctor’s appointments. There’s hardly any time for my doctor to get to know me or to address what concerns me the most. What can I do with these hurried 15-minute visits?

A: Many patients lament how hurried their doctors’ appointments feel. Believe me, I get it. Because as a doctor, I hate it, too.

In many cases, 15 minutes isn’t enough time for physicians to get all the information they need. Many doctors end up running abysmally late trying to ensure the 20 or so patients squished into their daily schedules feel heard and get the time they deserve.

Patients are suffering and frustrated with these crammed appointments, which also are a major driver of physician burnout.

So as a patient, what can you do? If you’ve only got 15 minutes with your doctor, here are a few tips to help you get the most out of the brief visit.

Weave in a quick fun fact about yourself

I know this may sound odd when we’re talking about a lack of time. Consider the psychology of the physician here for a moment: Imagine you’re seeing your 11th patient of the day. It’s flu season, and everyone’s masked and hard to recognize. Tales of diabetes and high blood pressure are starting to blur together. You haven’t eaten anything since that stale granola bar during your morning commute.

And then … a revelation: A patient tells you out of the blue that they used to fly airplanes for the army. Or that their teenage granddaughter is teaching them how to ski for the first time. Or that they took up yarn-crafting during the pandemic and just finished a magnificent, crocheted penguin.

We’re all human. Sometimes, your physician is transformed against their will into a robot. Years ago, we all went into medicine because we wanted to make our patients’ lives better TOP-L-HealthBeat-Hack0126 not fill out paperwork for insurance companies and write lengthy notes that meet billing requirements. These glimpses of the wonderful, unique person you are will remind your doctor that they are treating a person, and not a disease.

Decades of research in the biopsychosocial model of medicine have taught us that patient and physician outcomes are better when we integrate the patient’s story into our care. It takes an extra 15-30 seconds, but I go out of my way to ask new patients to tell me a fun fact about themselves that I make note of with their permission. In doing so, not only do I remember their medical histories better, but we both find it almost invariably brings a tiny, coveted spark of joy.

Lead with your most pressing concern

I like to open my visits by asking patients to tell me one thing they absolutely want to make sure is addressed today. Then I dive into other items on our agenda, such as following up on prescriptions or health screening tests.

It’s a classic scenario, and one I’ve experienced time and time again: me reaching for the doorknob at the end of the allotted visit, only to hear that you were saving your most concerning question for last.

Never save the most important thing for last — even if it’s embarrassing or it scares you. By raising your most pressing question first, your doctor will focus more time on what is truly worrying you.

Bring written notes to common questions

For new symptoms, your physician will probably ask a set of predictable questions:

• When did the issue start? It’s fine to just have a ballpark — but there’s big difference between a few weeks and a few years ago.

• What interventions or medications have you already tried? Know the medication names and doses — bring in your bag of pill bottles if it’ll help.

• Has anyone in the family experienced something like this? Call your family members ahead of time and ask about their medical history — it can dramatically change what a doctor decides to do next.

Rehearsing your “story” and gathering these details can help ensure our limited time is spent on diving into specifics, a physical exam and counseling — rather than searching for medication names on your smartphone.

Give A.I. a chance

When was the last time you met a doctor who spent the entire visit looking at you? How many seconds passed before they broke eye contact and began typing frenetically on their computers?

A.I. is starting to be used in many clinics to listen in on the conversation between patient and physician, and automatically create a note in your chart so that your doctor focuses directly on you, rather than the computer screen. You may not have much control over whether your doctor’s clinic offers it (within the next year or two, you can bet it’ll become more and more mainstream), but if it’s on the table, don’t be scared or ask to opt out.

Paradoxically, I think this kind of A.I. may be a step in the right direction to restore some humanity back to the doctor-patient relationship. Remember: A.I. in health care is heavily regulated. These technologies are HIPAA-compliant and are transcribing — not recording — the conversation.

Embrace medical trainees in your visit

If you get your care at a major academic center, there’s a reasonable chance you’ll encounter a trainee — medical students, residents or fellows. This may mean you’ll have to repeat your story multiple times. Once each member of the team has seen you, they’ll gather with the attending physician to come up with a plan.

I realize repeating your story can feel tiresome. But consider these two things: First, studies have shown that doctors are most empathetic when they’re fresh out of medical school. So they may well be the most devoted and sensitive member of your team. Second, when a trainee is involved in your care, you as a patient can actually get a longer appointment time. This means you have a chance to discuss details and worries in a way that may otherwise have felt too rushed with just the attending physician.

You want someone to listen to your whole story. So take advantage of the fact that trainees are dedicated to hearing you and reporting back the best assessment of your case. In my experience, they often become your biggest advocate.

By AMANDA SEITZ and MATTHEW PERRONE

WASHINGTON (AP) — As they readied to leave work Monday, some workers at the Food and Drug Administration were told to pack their laptops and prepare for the possibility that they wouldn’t be back, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press.

Nervous employees — roughly 82,000 across the nation’s public health agencies — waited to see whether pink slips would arrive in their inboxes. The mass dismissals have been expected since Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last week a massive reorganization that will result in 20,000 fewer jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services. About 10,000 will be eliminated through layoffs.

The email sent to some at the FDA said staffers should check their email for a possible notice that their jobs would be eliminated, which would also halt their access to government buildings. An FDA employee shared the email with AP on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to disclose internal agency matters.

Kennedy has criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy” and said the department’s $1.7 trillion yearly budget “has failed to improve the health of Americans.” He plans to streamline operations and fold entire agencies — such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — into a new Administration for a Healthy America.

On Friday, dozens of federal health employees working to stop infectious diseases from spreading were put on leave.

Several current and former federal officials told The AP that the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy was hollowed out that night. Some employees posted on LinkedIn about the office emptying. And an HIV and public health expert who works directly with the office was emailed a notice saying that all staff had been asked to leave. The expert spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity over fears of losing future work on the issue.

Several of the office’s advisory committees — including the National Vaccine Advisory Committee and others that advise on HIV/AIDs response — have had their meetings canceled.

“It puts a number of important efforts to improve the health of Americans at risk,” said Dr. Robert H. Hopkins Jr., the former chair of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, an advisory committee of the office.

An HHS official said the office is not being closed but that the department is seeking to consolidate the work and reduce redundancies.

Also, as of Monday, a website for the Office of Minority Health was disabled, with an error message saying the page “does not exist.”

Beyond layoffs at federal health agencies, cuts have begun at state and local health departments as a result of an HHS move last week to pull back more than $11 billion in COVID-19-related funds.

Local and state health officials are still assessing the impact, but some health departments have already identified hundreds of jobs that stand to be eliminated because of lost funding, “some of them overnight, some of them are already gone,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Associated Press writer Carla K. Johnson in Seattle contributed reporting.

Editor’s Note: This story is part four of a new four-part series from WDET’s Nargis Rahman called, “Shustho: Mind, Body, and Spirit,” exploring health care and health care access for Bangladeshi women.

 

Ayesha Tanjum moved to the U.S. about two years ago with her husband, an international student. Shortly after, she learned she was pregnant.  

“It was really tough for me in Michigan, because I didn’t have any friends or relatives around, and I was struggling to make friends,” she said. 

Tanjum said she was having mood swings due to hormonal changes and a complicated pregnancy.

“I had loneliness, frustrations, fear, anxiety, and I was alone. So I had a hyper, hypertension that time. And in the last time, my doctor figured it out that my baby’s baby’s growth is restricted,” she explained. 

Tanjum says she ultimately got the care and support she needed. She also read books to learn more about maternal health and nutrition, and began reaching out to old friends and connecting with new ones. That helped to improve her mental health. 

Speaking about mental health remains a taboo subject for many Bangladeshi women. 

Shuhrat Choudhury is a Bangladeshi American mental health counselor. She says stigma is the biggest reason many women don’t seek care — especially in older generations.

“I would be contacted by their sons, their daughters, their daughter-in-laws, that we need help for our mom or, like the older generation, but they are not OK. Like, they just, it’s that stigma around mental health, they go, ‘I’m not crazy,’” she said.  

Choudhury says younger Bangladeshi Americans struggle with navigating between American individuality and the Bangladeshi culture’s collective family expectations, in which personal boundaries do not exist in the same way in Bangladeshi culture.  

“When I transition to working someone with from our community, I have to find that balance. I just can’t advise them to move out, because you know that’s just not how it works in our culture,” she said. “I might use that terminology, but as long I’m explaining in our culture, it might not be feasible exactly the definition, but maybe a different version of it.” 

Choudhury said affordability is another barrier which can keep people from getting mental health care services. 

“Not a lot of our community members have access to better insurance plans, or they’re not financially stable. That when mixed with that stigma that we’re already trying to overcome, one obstacle on top of it, if it’s not financially feasible, then that just creates more delay in getting that help,” she added. 

There’s also a shortage of Bangla or Bengali speaking mental health professionals.  

“The need is much more than I could have ever anticipated, so I hope that more people join this field, from our community, and there is a need, and we desperately need to fill that.”

– Shuhrat Choudhury, Bangladeshi American mental health counselor

“I have been reached out by people from out of state, like someone in Michigan worked with me and their mom, brother, sister, someone’s like in Texas, but they just can’t find someone Bengali there,” she said.

Choudhury says she didn’t know there was such a need until she entered the field. She says she made that choice, in part, to give back to the community. 

“The need is much more than I could have ever anticipated,” she said. “So I hope that more people join this field, from our community, and there is a need, and we desperately need to fill that.”

Like Choudhury, Fariha Ghazi entered the mental health field to provide culturally competent care. Ghazi is a psychiatric physician assistant in Grand Rapids, who lives in the metro Detroit area and has telehealth options. 

She said she frequently sees Bangladeshi women struggling with anxiety, which manifests as physical symptoms first. 

“When they go see their general primary care provider, they’re often treated for things like stomach pain or acid reflux or, given sleep medication to help with sleep, a kind of root cause of a lot of those physical symptoms, it tends to be what I see being anxiety and trying to get them treatment for it,” she said. 

Ghazi says many women hesitate to discuss their mental health. She takes a creative approach to uncovering their struggles. 

“If someone has children, you know, I’d maybe ask her what are things that she thinks about in terms of her children, so if she’s always kind of like jumping to worst case scenarios, like thinking something bad’s going to happen to her child, or she kind of expresses that in our session, I’ll kind of note that as being, part of her symptoms.”  

Many women are also hesitant to take medication due to cultural taboos surrounding mental health treatment.

Ghazi said there is cultural taboo around taking medications to treat mental health, and part of her role is to explain treatment options and encourage self-advocacy, which she said plays a role in coverage. 

“If someone’s not fully aware of the terminology or what’s out there as resources, they’re not likely to get the health care that they need. They’re also much more willing to just kind of not question medical providers either. They’ll, be more complacent in their care,” she said. 

Choudhury and Ghazi say mental health is a vital part of caring for Bangladeshi women. They see a growing need for more Bangladeshi mental health professionals to serve their community.  

For now, they are using their language skills, cultural awareness, and lived experiences to provide better care. 

Read more from this series:

• Free health clinic aims to close insurance gap for Bangladeshi women in southeast Michigan  
• Bangladeshi women rely on culturally competent care for better health outcomes
• How language access affects health care for Bangladeshi women in Michigan

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today. Donate today »

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Editor’s Note: This story is part three of a new four-part series from WDET’s Nargis Rahman called, “Shustho: Mind, Body, and Spirit,” exploring health care and health care access for Bangladeshi women.

 

The Health Unit on Davison Avenue in Detroit (HUDA Clinic) is the largest free health care clinic in Wayne County. It serves uninsured and underinsured patients helping about 5,000 patients annually.

Nurse Practitioner Joann Harrison says about 30% of HUDA’s patients are Bangladeshi women. She says many struggle with mental health and chronic conditions due to lack of access to regular care. 

“There are problems with hypertension and diabetes. I just see a wide variety of issues, a lot of it has to do with not knowing how to manage or not having the resources to manage issues,” she said. 

Within that care, Harrison says Bangladeshi women are more receptive to female health care providers. 

“I think they’re more open to talk with us. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case that we have female providers available or female translators available, but I do feel that when there is someone present, there is more openness, more freedom to speak with us,” she explained. 

The clinic also provides interpreters and translated educational materials. 

Harrison, who is Black, said she is learning more about Bangladeshi culture, including about food and family values, to better serve her patients. “I’m learning all the time about how to help them, especially the women, to better care for themselves and what issues affect them.”  

Dr. Nashita Molla is a Bangladeshi American physician who volunteers at the HUDA Clinic. Part of her care is educating Bangladeshi women about preventive care. 

“In Bangladesh there isn’t a whole lot of cancer screening, so patients don’t have a PCP that they go to continuously and get colonoscopies every 10 years, or pap smears every three to five years,” she said.

Molla said having more Bangladeshi doctors and health care providers who are women could improve care for Bangladeshi women patients. 

“If I’m not there, or, you know, another female Bengali provider is not there, or then they’re not going to be as open with those other providers. They might not do those tests because they don’t understand why they need those things,” she shared. 

Molla said there’s a need for more free clinics and educational materials in Bengali, such as informational videos on diabetes and hypertension, which are rampant among Bangladeshis.  

“I think it helps if there’s another Bengali female saying, like, ‘hey we gotta cut down the portions of how much they’re eating, and cut down on the fried foods, and it’ll mean a lot more coming from them than it would like any other culture,” she said.

Like some patients served at HUDA Clinic, some Bangladeshi women end up in the Emergency Room for primary care because they don’t have adequate insurance.  

Dr. Farjana Alam is an emergency medicine physician who works at several hospitals in metro Detroit.  

She says socioeconomic barriers contribute to these challenges. 

“Poverty is higher in our people. I’ve seen lack of education is higher. And so I think that also plays into effect with all the health literacy gaps which then leads to like issues with chronic illnesses and not having an overall, as great of a health outcomes as, like other people,” she said.  

Alam grew up helping her immigrant parents navigate the health care system.  As a result, she said she understands firsthand how having limited resources affects one’s health.  

Social determinants of health, factors such as limited English proficiency, inadequate insurance and needing help with transportation can make a big difference in health outcomes, she said. 

“You can’t compare someone like a white female from a family who has all the resources in the world, who has all the money in the world, her health outcomes, to this Bangladeshi female who barely finished school, who has all these financial constraints over her; like you can’t compare those health outcomes,” she said.  

Alam said despite these barriers, Bangladeshi women in metro Detroit are empowering themselves by learning English, learning how to drive, and educating their children to assist them to have better health outcomes.  

Read more from this series:

• Bangladeshi women rely on culturally competent care for better health outcomes
• How language access affects health care for Bangladeshi women in Michigan

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today. Donate today »

The post Shustho: Free health clinic aims to close insurance gap for Bangladeshi women in southeast Michigan   appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

By LAURA UNGAR, Associated Press

Federal health officials said Tuesday they are pulling back $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funds for state and local public health departments and other health organizations throughout the nation.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

The statement said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to recover the money beginning 30 days after termination notices, which began being sent out on Monday.

Officials said the money was largely used for COVID-19 testing, vaccination and global projects as well as community health workers responding to COVID and a program established in 2021 to address COVID health disparities among high-risk and underserved patients, including those in minority populations. The move was first reported by NBC News.

Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County & City Health Officials, said much of the funding was set to end soon anyway. “It’s ending in the next six months,” she said. “There’s no reason — why rescind it now? It’s just cruel and unusual behavior.”

In a related move, more than two dozen COVID-related research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health have been canceled. Earlier this month, the Trump administration shut down ordering from covidtest.gov, the site where Americans could have COVID-19 tests delivered to their mailboxes for no charge.

Although the COVID federal public health emergency has ended, the virus is still killing Americans: 458 people per week on average have died from COVID over the past four weeks, according to CDC data.

HHS wouldn’t provide many details about how the federal government expects to recover the money from what it called “impacted recipients.” But HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in an email: “The $11.4 billion is undisbursed funds remaining.”

Freeman said her understanding is that state health departments already had the COVID money.

“The funding was authorized by Congress, was appropriated by Congress, and it was out the door, basically, into the hands of the grantees” — states, she said, which decide how to distribute it locally.

Some of the COVID money is used to address other public health issues, Freeman added. For example, wastewater surveillance that began during COVID became important for detecting other diseases, too.

“It was being used in significant ways to track flu and patterns of new disease and emerging diseases — and even more recently with the measles outbreak,” Freeman said.

Under both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, billions of dollars was allocated for COVID response through legislation, including a COVID relief bill and the American Rescue Plan Act.

At this point, it’s unclear exactly how health departments will be affected by the pullback of funds. But some were starting to look at what it might mean for them. In Washington state, for example, health officials were notified that more than $125 million in COVID-related funding has been immediately terminated. They are “assessing the impact” of the actions, they said.

In Los Angeles County, health officials said they could lose more than $80 million in core funding for vaccinations and other services. “Much of this funding supports disease surveillance, public health lab services, outbreak investigations, infection control activities at healthcare facilities and data transparency,” a department official wrote in an email.

Associated Press reporters Mike Stobbe in New York, JoNel Aleccia in Temecula, California, Carla K. Johnson in Seattle and Amanda Seitz in Washington, D.C. contributed to this story.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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By CATERINA MORBIATO, Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Under warm strobe lights and pulsing house beats, a recent festival in Mexico City offered more than music, food and booze. Amidst the usual festival fare, a booth provided free, anonymous drug testing.

The initiative, known as “Checa tu Sustancia” (Check Your Substance), is one of several recent efforts by Mexican civil society to reduce risk among people taking drugs. Spearheaded by the Instituto RIA, a Mexico-based drug policy research and advocacy organization, it aims to address drug use from a public health and social justice perspective, rather than a security one.

In a well-lit corner of the festival, members of the Instituto RIA used reagents and laboratory porcelain plates to test substances that some of the partygoers planned to use and recorded the data. Their analysis uses color changes to indicate what’s in the drug: It can reveal the presence of adulterants but not their exact proportion.

They also offered test strips that can detect the presence of fentanyl and nasal sprays of naloxone, a medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose.

Also available were informational flyers detailing the effects of various psychoactive substances and what to do to reduce the risks associated with using them, including simple but critical measures like staying hydrated and eating well.

While some partygoers seemed wary of the initiative, others approached it with curiosity.

“(There is) amazement, but also a little bit of fear, because there is a whole context of criminalization,” said social psychology student Jessica Reyes Moreno, 27, a volunteer with Checa tu Sustancia.

When unexpected substances are detected, users receive detailed information on what they are, about their risks, potential interactions with other substances and dosage adjustments, empowering them to make informed choices.

Harm reduction vs. abstinence

When people understand that the focus is not on prohibiting but on offering information and safe, non-judgmental spaces where they can be heard, trust is built, said Reyes Moreno.

“I think it’s information we should have. Because (drug use) is taboo, and if we’re uninformed, we can overdose,” said a 34-year-old Mexican partygoer, who requested anonymity due to his use of illicit substances.

He said he feels there isn’t enough information about illegal drugs in Mexico, and when there is, it’s either confusing or all stigma. “It’s just ‘Don’t do it,’ but there’s no such thing as ‘If you do it, take this precaution.’”

The “don’t do it” approach sees abstinence as the solution. In contrast, harm reduction, as defined by Harm Reduction International, aims to minimize the negative health, social and legal effects of substance use by working with people without judgment or requiring them to stop using drugs.

The approach focuses more on people — and their communities— than on the substance.

“We never say, ‘you shouldn’t consume this,’” said Zara Snapp, a political scientist and director of the Instituto RIA. “The best way to reduce your risks is not to consume at all. But if you have made the decision to consume, we want you to have as much information as possible so you can take care of yourself.”

‘Choose to be happy’

The prohibitionist, hardline approach of the war on drugs in Mexico has led to the perception of the user as someone who is necessarily associated with drug trafficking or criminal activities.

Earlier this year, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum unveiled her government’s latest anti-drug campaign, “Stay away from drugs. Fentanyl kills,” which centers on the synthetic opioid responsible in its deadliest year for more than 70,000 overdose deaths each year in the U.S. — now down to an estimated 52,000 deaths a year.

Aimed at young Mexicans, the campaign frames drug use as a public health issue, but some of the videos and glowing neon billboards show scenarios in which death and loneliness (drug use) are contrasted with life and family (not using drugs). They read, “Choose to be happy.”

“It’s not that if I use drugs I won’t be happy, or if I stop using drugs I’ll be happy,” said Lilia Pacheco, operational director of PrevenCasa A.C., a Tijuana-based organization that runs harm-reduction initiatives for opioid users, mostly deportees from the United States who report that they started using in that country.

“How can we say that to someone who is using because they are cold, hungry or in withdrawal?” she said.

Mexico’s health department did not immediately respond to inquiries regarding concerns that its latest campaign stigmatizes drug use.

Dr. Carlos Magis, a professor at Mexico’s National Autonomous University’s medical school and member of a working group on opioids, said that stigma poses serious challenges. He cited examples of health workers refusing treatment without abstinence, limited access to naloxone or the scarcity of public methadone clinics.

Breaking down fear and social isolation

A recent report by the Mexican Observatory of Mental Health and Drug Use, found that between 2013 and 2024, 5,901 people in Mexico were treated for emergencies related to opioid use, with it trending up.

PrevenCasa reduces harm not by asking users to stop using, but by showing that their lives matter by providing them with safe injection equipment, showers, toiletries and social events like Friday movie nights.

“These interventions improve quality of life, unlike a sign that says ‘fentanyl kills you,’” said Pacheco. “The right to health should be universal.”

Both Pacheco and Snapp emphasized that collective care is at the heart of harm reduction efforts. Whether practiced in the facilities of organizations working on the border or at electronic music festivals, the goal is to break down social isolation and fear in concrete ways.

“This is a service that will save lives…it’s very forward-thinking,” said a 43-year-old man, who requested anonymity because he is a user of illicit substances, after members of Instituto RIA tested his ecstasy at a recent festival.

He said that drug testing kits are available in the United States, where he’s from, but that in his experience so far, it’s something people mostly do on their own or behind closed doors.

The visibility and organization of Checa tu Sustancia was a surprise to him.

“I feel good that I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m just here to have fun, but now with peace of mind,” he said with a smile. He then rejoined his friends and disappeared into the dancing crowd.

It was 40 years ago that L. Brooks Patterson organized a golf outing as a way of turning a heartbreaking tragedy into something beautiful. What began as a gesture to honor a friend and his children killed in a plane crash planted a seed that grew into The Rainbow Connection.

Its mission to brighten the lives of sick children and their families by providing them with fun, joy, comfort and inspiration during their darkest days has been growing ever since.

“We get to grant wishes to brave and wonderful Michiganders,” said Ingrid Todt, executive director of the Rainbow Connection, who was a college intern when she started working for the charity. “I did a picnic for a wish family and fell in love with the work.

“I’ve been here ever since.”

Since the first wish in 1985, granted to a 16-year-old patient at Children’s Hospital of Michigan who wanted to meet the legendary Muhammad Ali, more than 4,300 children have had wishes granted.

One that Todt will always remember had her traveling to Washington, D.C. at Christmas-time with Adam, a 12-year-old boy who wanted to meet President George W. Bush.

“He had a very old soul and just wanted to see what it was like to have a conversation with a president in the White House,” said Todt, who remembers the trip came up suddenly and Patterson, who served as Oakland County Executive for more than 26 years before his death in 2019, secured a private jet to get the boy and his family there in time.

It was a dream come true.

Adam was ushered into the Roosevelt Room where he and his family not only met with the President and First Lady but were given enough time to have the conversation he always wanted.

Wishes are granted through a process that involves a referral by hospital staff or online application. Once the application is approved, Rainbow Connection staff will set up a meeting to discuss what sort of wish the child might like.

“It’s usually something to do with going somewhere, meeting someone, or receiving something,” Todt said, remembering a young girl who wanted a shopping spree, another child going to the Super Bowl and one little girl who had her photo taken with the entire Dallas Cowboys cheerleader squad.

Medicine has come a long way so many children with life-threatening illnesses are doing much better than previous generations, but they have to go through so much to get to that point.

“The wishes give them the opportunity to focus on something amazing and fun during their journey,” said Todt.

For Scarlett Morales, 17, of Clinton Township, who is battling cancer,  a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando with her parents and young sister was exactly what she needed.

“At the prime of Scarlett’s teenage years (age 16) she got diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia,” said Scarlett’s mother, Estela Morales. “We felt like our world was collapsing. We did not know what to expect with this new journey. As the initial weeks of treatment started to become more intense she started to feel like she was in a hopeless hole.”

That’s when she got a wish.

“When Scarlett was informed that a wish could be granted she did not know what to ask for,” Estela said, adding her daughter has always been a very grateful young lady and even something as simple as a popsicle would bring about a smile so she was a little dumbfounded by the offer.

However, after meeting with the Rainbow Connection and thinking about how her illness affected her sister she decided on a trip that would create memories for everyone in her family.

“We all went on an adventure of a lifetime,” Estela said.

Scarlett concurred.

“My happiest moment was to see all of us enjoying our time together, especially when my little sister Leah got to meet the character Stitch,” Scarlett said. “The Rainbow Connection is a magnificent organization and thanks to many generous people is able to make children’s wishes come true.”

One recipient who battled cancer as a child and grew up to become a health care professional said the charity provided her and her family with moments that impacted her life long after granting her a wish.

“This organization becomes an integral part of your family, providing financial support if needed, special events for the families until 18, scholarships for trade school/community college/University and more,” Jennifer said, in a testimonial recalling her wish 20 years ago.

“I’m never going to make a ton of money,” Todt said, of her role as the executive director of a nonprofit. “But I could never imagine doing anything else.”

For more information visit rainbowconnection.org/.

By MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sarepta Therapeutics said Tuesday that a patient died while taking its closely watched gene therapy for muscular dystrophy, sending company shares plummeting in morning trading.

The young man died of acute liver injury, a known side effect, Sarepta said in a statement. But the company said the “severity” of the patient’s case had not previously been seen with the therapy, called Elevidys. It’s the first known patient death with the therapy, which has been used in more than 800 patients, the company said.

In 2023, Elevidys received expedited U.S. approval despite concerns from some Food and Drug Administration scientists about its effectiveness in treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It’s the first gene therapy approved in the U.S. for the rare muscle-wasting condition, which causes weakness, loss of mobility and early death in males.

The FDA granted full approval last year for Duchenne’s patients with a particular genetic mutation, expanding its use to patients 4 and older, regardless of whether they are still able to walk. Previously it was only available for younger patients who were still mobile.

Sarepta said in a statement the patient who died had a recent infection that could have contributed to the liver injury. The company said it plans to update the prescribing information for Elevidys to reflect the case.

Shares of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company fell more than 23% to about $78 per share in morning trading.

Elevidys uses a disabled virus to insert a replacement gene for producing dystrophin into patient cells. It costs $3.2 million for a one-time treatment.

Sarepta has received FDA accelerated approval for threeother Duchenne’s drugs since 2016. None has yet been confirmed to work; studies designed to secure full FDA approval are ongoing.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By Scott S. Greenberger, Stateline.org

Working-age adults who live in small towns and rural areas are more likely to be covered by Medicaid than their counterparts in cities, creating a dilemma for Republicans looking to make deep cuts to the health care program.

About 72 million people— nearly 1 in 5 people in the United States — are enrolled in Medicaid, which provides health care coverage to low-income and disabled people and is jointly funded by the federal government and the states. Black, Hispanic and Native people are disproportionately represented on the rolls, and more than half of Medicaid recipients are people of color.

Nationwide, 18.3% of adults who are between the ages of 19 and 64 and live in small towns and rural areas are enrolled, compared with 16.3% in metro areas, according to a recent analysis by the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University.

In 15 states, at least a fifth of working-age adults in small towns and rural areas are covered by Medicaid, and in two of those states — Arizona and New York — more than a third are. Eight of the 15 states voted for President Donald Trump.

Twenty-six Republicans in the U.S. House represent districts where Medicaid covers more than 30% of the population, according to a recent analysis by The New York Times. Many of those districts have significant rural populations, including House Speaker Mike Johnson’s 4th Congressional District in Louisiana.

Republican U.S. Rep. David Valadao of California, whose Central Valley district is more than two-thirds Hispanic and where 68% of the residents are enrolled in Medicaid, has spoken out against potential cuts.

“I’ve heard from countless constituents who tell me the only way they can afford health care is through programs like Medicaid, and I will not support a final reconciliation bill that risks leaving them behind,” Valadao said to House members in a recent floor speech.

U.S. House Republicans are trying to reduce the federal budget by $2 trillion as they seek $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. GOP leaders have directed the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid and Medicare, to find $880 billion in savings.

Trump has ruled out cuts to Medicare, which covers older adults. That leaves Medicaid as the only other program big enough to provide the needed savings — and the Medicaid recipients most likely to be in the crosshairs are working-age adults. But targeting that population would have a disproportionate impact on small towns and rural areas, which are reliably Republican.

Furthermore, hospitals and other health care providers in rural communities are heavily reliant on Medicaid. Many rural hospitals are struggling, and nearly 200 have closed or significantly scaled back their services in the past two decades.

Before the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, there were far fewer working-age adults on the Medicaid rolls: The program mostly covered children and their caregivers, people with disabilities and pregnant women. But under the ACA, states are allowed to expand Medicaid to cover adults making up to 138% of the federal poverty level — about $21,000 a year for a single person. As an inducement to expand, the federal government covers 90% of the costs — a greater share than what the feds pay for the traditional Medicaid population.

Last year, there were about 21.3 million people who received coverage through Medicaid expansion.

One GOP cost-saving idea is to reduce the federal match for that population to what the feds give states for the traditional Medicaid population, which ranges from 50% for the wealthiest states to 77% for the poorest ones. That would reduce federal spending by $626 billion over a 10-year period, according to a recent analysis by KFF, a health research group.

Nine states — Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia — have so-called trigger laws that would automatically end Medicaid expansion if the feds reduce their share. Three other states — Idaho, Iowa and New Mexico — would require other cost-saving steps.

“States will not be able to cover those shortfalls,” said Jennifer Driver, senior director of reproductive rights at the State Innovation Exchange, a left-leaning nonprofit that advocates on state legislative issues. “It’s not cutting costs. It is putting people in real danger.”

Studies have shown that Medicaid expansion has improved health care for a range of issues, including family planning, HIV care and prevention, and postpartum health care.

Another idea is to require able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work. That would affect an average of 15 million enrollees each year, and 1.5 million would lose eligibility for federal funding, resulting in federal savings of about $109 billion over 10 years.

In heavily rural North Carolina, which has a trigger law, there are about 3 million people on Medicaid, and 640,000 of them are eligible under the state’s expansion program. About 231,000 of the expansion enrollees live in rural counties. Black residents make up about 36% of new enrollees under the state’s eligibility expansion, but only about 22% of the state’s population.

Brandy Harrell, chief of staff at the Foundation for Health Leadership & Innovation, an advocacy group based in Cary, North Carolina, that focuses on rural issues, said the proposed Medicaid cuts would “deepen the existing disparities” between white people and Black people and urban and rural residents.

“It would have a profound effect on working families by reducing access to essential health care, increasing financial strain and jeopardizing children’s health,” Harrell said. “Cuts could lead to more medical debt, and also poorer health outcomes for our state.”

Two of the North Carolina lawmakers with about 30% of their constituents on Medicaid, U.S. Reps. Virginia Foxx and Greg Murphy, represent heavily rural districts in western and coastal North Carolina, respectively.

Foxx has supported GOP budget priorities in social media posts. Murphy, a physician and co-chair of the GOP Doctors Caucus in the House, has focused his statements on taking care of what he says is abuse and fraud in the Medicaid system.

But North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein sent a letter to U.S. House and Senate leaders of both parties, saying the state’s rural communities disproportionately rely on Medicaid and that cuts would upend an already fragile landscape for rural hospitals in the state.

“The damage to North Carolina’s health care system, particularly rural hospitals and providers, would be devastating, not to mention to people who can no longer afford to access health care,” Stein wrote.

In Nebraska, 27% of residents live in rural areas, and state lawmakers are already scrambling to make up for reduced federal Medicaid funding.

Dr. Alex Dworak, a family medicine physician who works at an Omaha health clinic that serves low-income and uninsured people, said a dearth of health care options in rural Nebraska already hurts residents. He has one patient who drives up to three hours from his rural community to the clinic.

“It wouldn’t be just bad for marginalized communities, but it would be worse for marginalized communities — because things were already worse for them,” Dworak said of proposed Medicaid cuts. “It will be an utter disaster.”

Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein and Stateline’s Barbara Barrett contributed to this report. Scott S. Greenberger can be reached at sgreenberger@stateline.org.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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The post First Michigan measles case of 2025 confirmed in Oakland County appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

Hannah Mackay, The Detroit News

Grounding wires, or safety straps worn around a wrist to prevent static electricity inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, were found inside a “junk drawer” at a Troy medical facility where a chamber exploded, killing a boy, and could’ve saved the child’s life, according to testimony by a Troy police detective.

A transcript of Det. Danielle Trigger’s testimony to 52-4 District Court Magistrate Elizabeth Chiappelli, given March 7, sheds light on the Jan. 31 explosion at the Oxford Center. Thomas Cooper, 5, of Royal Oak was inside the hyperbaric chamber and died when it exploded.

Thomas on his 36th of 40 treatments in the hyperbaric chamber, which creates a pressurized environment of pure oxygen. His mother, standing nearby, burned her arms trying to rescue her son. Police have not revealed what the boy was being treated for.

CCTV footage of the oxygen chamber gave police insight into what preceded the tragedy: Cooper lay in the chamber wearing pajamas and holding a gray blanket. His head rested on a pillow with a patterned pillowcase, according to March 7 transcripts.

“Cooper is moving around within the chamber, moving the blanket and sheet around with him. He rolls onto his side and pulls his knee up towards his chest, which results in a visible ignition,” Trigger said. “The chamber immediately begins to burn internally and in what could only be described as a fireball, ultimately killing Thomas Cooper. At the time of the initial ignition to the time the inside of the chamber is fully engulfed in flames, killing Cooper, is approximately three seconds.”

Police found the grounding wrist straps in a “junk drawer” in the facility’s laundry room, Trigger said. She described the cords as oxidized, like they hadn’t been used or moved for an extended period. They also found a multimeter in the drawer, which is used to test grounding, Trigger said.

“The multimeter was still in the bag with the caps on both ends of the cords and the cords appeared to have never been unraveled, which was consistent with it never having been utilized to test grounding,” Trigger said.

Tamela Peterson, the Oxford Center’s owner and CEO, was arraigned Tuesday in 52-4 District Court on second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges, as was Gary Marken, the facility’s primary manager, and safety director Jeffrey Mosteller. If bound over for a trial, a jury will decide where either charge fits the defendants’ conduct.

Aleta Moffitt, the operator of the hyperbaric chamber that exploded, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and intentionally placing false information on a medical record. All four pleaded not guilty.

Second degree murder is punishable by up to life in prison, while involuntary manslaughter can result in a sentence of up to 15 years behind bars.

The Michigan Attorney General’s office, which filed the charges, has accused the Oxford Center’s CEO and employees of disregarding safety protocols and using the chamber in ways it wasn’t intended to be used. The Oxford Center has said the “safety and well-being of the children we serve is our highest priority.”

Moffitt’s lawyer Ellen K. Michaels said Thursday Moffitt was an hourly worker at the Oxford Center who was adhering to the corporate policies presented to her by the center’s decision-makers.

“Everything that has been presented to the court to this point are allegations, not facts, not evidence,” Michaels said in a Thursday statement. “We look forward to reviewing the information that will be given to the defense through the discovery process and performing our own investigation. We believe in letting this process unfold.”

No grounding wire

Investigators made copies of hyperbaric chamber maintenance and service records at the scene and learned that the chamber that exploded was from 2013, while the other two in the facility were only a few years old, Trigger said. They also found a manual showing a wrist strap that patients should use when receiving treatment in the chamber to ground them. CCTV footage showed that Cooper was not wearing one, Trigger said.

“Photos taken of the scene at the time that the incident occurred were also re-reviewed,” Trigger said. “I observed what appeared to be a grounding wire for the chamber involved in the incident was wrapped in electrical tape and was clearly in worse condition or inconsistent with the other chambers in the room.”

The other patient receiving treatment at the time of the explosion and previous patients and employees at the Oxford Center all told police that a grounding wire had never been used in their hyperbaric treatments there, Trigger said. Employees who expressed concern to Peterson, Mosteller, and Marken about this policy were told that grounding wrist straps were not necessary, she added.

Police also found that starting in 2019, the Oxford Center removed items related to checking the chamber and patient grounding from daily and weekly checklists performed on the chambers.

Representatives from Sechrist, the hyperbaric chamber’s manufacturer, were shown a photo of the chamber that exploded and the electrical tape wrapped around the grounding wire.

“Sechrist personnel advised that they would have never repaired a wire in that way,” Trigger said. “They further advised that had a wire been repaired by an outside electrician, they would have had to tag out the chamber as being unusable. They would then have had to return to the location to inspect the work in the chamber before it could be used again. That did not occur.”

Trigger also claimed that one previous Oxford Center employee told her superiors she would no longer administer hyperbaric treatments due to the lack of safety practices and was fired.

The police consulted with two industry experts with “decades of experience in hyperbaric oxygen treatments,” according to Trigger. They also asked hyperbaric facilities at multiple hospitals and a privately run facility for insight into safety protocols, she said.

“The experts were able to determine, based on their opinion, that had Cooper been wearing the grounding wrist strap, he would still be alive,” Trigger said.

Mosteller told Trigger in an interview that Peterson had advised him that grounding straps were not necessary and said he performed his own testing to “convince himself to agree with that theory,” the detective said.

“Mosteller indicated that he would occasionally check the chamber grounding, but it was not done regularly,” Trigger said. “Employees were both advised of and shown an ‘experiment,’ that Jeff Mosteller had conducted that he felt made the grounding wrist straps unnecessary in order to justify not using them.”

At her Tuesday arraignment, Peterson’s attorney Gerald Gleeson said her parents both used the facility’s hyperbaric chambers, discounting the idea that she was operating the machines with “reckless abandon.”

Keeping the chambers full

Hyperbaric chambers are approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat 13 conditions, ranging from decompression sickness to severe burns. The Oxford Center advertises their use for treatment of over 90 different conditions, including Alzheimer’s Disease and diabetes.

Upon reviewing Peterson’s cellphone and laptop, police found messages in which people ask whether the company was promoting hyperbaric treatments for erectile dysfunction, Trigger said.

“Peterson responds stating, ‘Whatever gets bodies in those chambers, lol,’ ” the detective said.

Police also found messages containing still photos from CCTV footage of Cooper burning in the chamber.

“In the message exchange along with those photos, she stated something to the effect of, ‘If my leg was on fire, I would at least try to hit it and put it out. He just laid there and did nothing,'” Trigger said.

When police attempted to execute a search warrant for Peterson’s cellular devices and laptops at the Brighton facility, she initially ran from investigators, Trigger said. She also allegedly told investigators that she’d had her son wipe her laptop days after the explosion, Trigger said.

“Conversations with investigators at the attorney general’s office made Troy investigators aware that the CEO of the company, Tamela Peterson, along with her IT personnel had a history of tampering with and/or destroying evidence, specifically CCTV footage and records related to the investigation that the AG’s office had previously been conducting,” Trigger said.

Investigators observed nine inconsistencies between internally recorded time stamps for Cooper’s treatments provided by Peterson’s attorney and CCTV footage of the treatments, Trigger said.

Cooper’s records that police recovered from the facility show that on the day of the explosion he continued to receive treatment after the fire occurred and he had died.

Rolling back machines

Two previous employees told police they observed Marken manually manipulating the hyperbaric chamber’s cycle counters, which measure the lifespan of the machine, Trigger said.

“They reported that they had personally observed Marken using a screwdriver to remove the panel from the side of the chamber, remove the cycle counter, and roll back the number in order to make the cycle count look lower and to extend the life of the chamber,” the Troy detective said. “They advised that they were confident that this was likely done at the direction of Peterson due to her level of involvement in the ongoings of the company.”

Previous employees also told police that Marken was Peterson’s “muscle” and they were “one and the same,” Trigger said.

Marken’s attorney Raymond Cassar said at his arraignment that he had not been to the Oxford Center facility in Troy in over three years.

“I don’t know where the information is coming from that he is rolling back any of these things, but I can tell you that we’re confident he hasn’t been to that facility because he worked at the Brighton facility,” Cassar said Tuesday.

“They reported that they had personally observed Marken using a screwdriver to remove the panel from the side of the chamber, remove the cycle counter, and roll back the number in order to make the cycle count look lower and to extend the life of the chamber,” the Troy detective said. “They advised that they were confident that this was likely done at the direction of Peterson due to her level of involvement in the ongoings of the company.”

Previous employees also told police that Marken was Peterson’s “muscle” and they were “one and the same,” Trigger said.

Marken’s attorney Raymond Cassar said at his arraignment that he had not been to the Oxford Center facility in Troy in over three years.

“I don’t know where the information is coming from that he is rolling back any of these things, but I can tell you that we’re confident he hasn’t been to that facility because he worked at the Brighton facility,” Cassar said Tuesday.

Safety and clothing guidelines

The National Fire Protection Association’s guidelines for hyperbaric chambers indicate that there should be a safety pause before a patient enters one to check that the clothing they wear is 100% cotton and that they don’t have any lotions or medical patches on, Trigger said. CCTV footage of Cooper’s entire visit shows that this did not occur, she said.

The experts that police consulted with also advised that a physician is required on scene for hyperbaric oxygen treatments, although one was not present for Cooper’s treatment, Trigger said. Of the defendants, Mosteller is the only one with a current certification to administer the treatments and none are physicians or nurses, she added.

While on scene at the Oxford Center in Troy, the experts noted that pillows inside the chambers were filled with 100% polyester, which is not allowed inside them, partially due to fire risk, Trigger said. The disclosure forms and waivers that patients and parents signed did not mention the risks of fire or death.

hmackay@detroitnews.com

By AMANDA SEITZ and JONEL ALECCIA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — There sat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, at a Steak ’n Shake with Fox News host Sean Hannity, raving about the fries.

“Steak ’n Shake has been great, we’re very grateful for them,” Kennedy said, in between nibbles of fries that the Midwestern franchise recently announced would be cooked in beef tallow instead of common cooking oils that Kennedy claims — contrary to advice from nutritionists — are bad for Americans’ diet.

It’s the kind of endorsement that doctors have implored him to make about the childhood vaccines used to prevent deadly diseases, like measles as outbreaks worsened in Texas and New Mexico during his first month in office.

The secretary of Health and Human Services has, instead, raised doubts about vaccines, most recently saying in his interview with Hannity that the shots cause “deaths every year,” although he later added that vaccinations should be encouraged.

In his first month in office, Kennedy, who vowed to “Make America Healthy Again,” has delivered an inconsistent message that has the nation’s top infectious diseases specialists worried that his tepid recommendations will undermine access to long-proven, life-saving vaccines.

Public health agencies cancel vaccine meetings, research under Kennedy’s watch

During his first address to thousands of workers at the federal public health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Food and Drug Administration, Kennedy promised to “investigate” the childhood vaccine schedule. Days later, the CDC canceled a public meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Panel, a group of doctors and scientists who make recommendations on vaccines. That meeting has not been rescheduled.

In another case, a canceled public meeting of vaccine advisers who make recommendations on the flu vaccine every year for the FDA also has not been given a new date. This week, the National Institutes for Health, also under Kennedy’s purview, began canceling funding for some research on vaccines.

The CDC also is preparing to research autism and vaccines, planning to “leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement. Agency officials did not comment further for this article.

Numerous studies have concluded that there is no link between the two, a fact the agency states on its website. And studying it again could take money from other research including into finding the true cause of autism, noted Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, as he questioned National Institutes of Health director nominee Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

When Bhattacharya suggested more studies could be worthwhile because some may believe there’s a link, Cassidy retorted: “There’s people who disagree the world is round.”

“What (Kennedy) is trying to do is scare about the safety of vaccines,” Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA vaccine adviser and infectious disease doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said of Kennedy’s first month in office. “It shouldn’t surprise anybody. His agenda has always been to get vaccines off the market, or to make them less available.”

Offit worries that the cancellation of the FDA’s flu vaccine meeting, held every March for at least 30 years, is just the beginning. The committee’s June meeting to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine’s formulation has also not been scheduled, he said.

Democrats and Republicans pushed back when Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA nominee, wouldn’t commit to rescheduling the committee’s flu meeting .

“What is lost is the transparency,” said Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate health committee and is also a physician.

Kennedy rejects ‘anti-vaccine’ label but still echoes the movement

During his senate confirmation hearings earlier this year, Kennedy seemed to say he would not undermine vaccines. “I support vaccines. I support the childhood schedule,” he said. He promised Cassidy, who was unsettled about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work, that he would not change existing vaccine recommendations.

But in the hearings he also repeatedly refused to acknowledge scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don’t cause autism and that COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives, and he falsely asserted the government has no good vaccine safety monitoring.

And since his confirmation, Kennedy has repeated his skeptical views of vaccines in interviews and other public statements.

He’s sent “mixed messages” on vaccine safety, even though the U.S. has “the most elaborate vaccine adverse event surveillance system in the world,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. Serious problems, including death, are very rare and the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks, he said.

“A simple way to describe this to the average person is the serious adverse events generally occur at a rate of 1 to a few cases per million doses of vaccine,” he said. “That’s a needle in a haystack.”

In an opinion piece on FoxNews.com earlier this month, Kennedy said the measles outbreak in West Texas that left a six-year old child dead was a “call to action” but stopped short of recommending that people receive the vaccine that prevents 97% of cases. Despite the U.S. registering its first measles death in a decade, Kennedy has repeatedly downplayed this year’s outbreaks, noting that when he was a child “everybody got measles.”

This year’s cases — reported at 250 — are on track to far outpace last year’s reports of 286 measles infections.

Pediatricians are fielding more questions from confused parents in their exam rooms, said Dr. Susan Kressly. Worried about reports of cancelled vaccine meetings, they’re wondering about their access to next year’s flu vaccines. Others are asking if they should get doses of the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine earlier. Kressly said there’s a clear message the government can send to help stop the rising case count.

“The only way to stop an outbreak is increased coordinated positive messaging around vaccinating,” Kressly said.

The CDC has assisted with vaccination efforts in West Texas. But Kennedy himself has publicly advocated for an alternative treatment for measles: Vitamin A. Under his watch, the CDC’s guidance was updated to say that Vitamin A should be given to children with severe measles and prescribed in doses under a doctor’s supervision.

Vitamin A supplementation has been recommended for decades to reduce pneumonia and death in malnourished children in developing countries, but the benefits in well-nourished children in countries like the U.S. are less clear.

“We need to use Vitamin A for those kids who are unlucky enough to get measles,” said Dr. Andy Pavia, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the University of Utah. “But it can’t prevent measles and it can only provide some help in reducing the severity.”

When administered correctly, using Vitamin A in kids with severe measles will “do no harm,” Pavia said. But if improperly done, high doses of Vitamin A can be toxic and deadly.

Kennedy’s supporters celebrate success on the food front during first month

Abrupt staffing changes have also dominated Kennedy’s first weeks in office, with CDC pick Dave Weldon withdrawing from the nomination mere minutes before his hearing, Kennedy’s top HHS spokesman quitting two weeks into the job and the Food and Drug Administration’s newly minted chief counsel departing 48 hours into the position.

Trump and Kennedy’s supporters, however, have dismissed concerns about the rocky start.

His newfound platform as health secretary and talk of healthier foods is already affecting change in the American diet, advisers close to Kennedy and Trump have claimed on social media.

They credit Kennedy with prompting Republican legislators to introduce bills in Utah and Texas that would seek to ban soda in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, for example. And then there’s Steak ‘n Shake’s new fries.

“RFK Jr. just ate Steak ’n Shake on live TV, the fast food joint that’s bravely frying everything in beef tallow,” conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk said this week in a tweet. “This is the way.”

In fact, nutrition science experts say that decades of research show that consuming plant-based oils lowers the risk of heart disease and that there is no evidence to indicate that beef tallow is healthier than seed oils.

On Wednesday, after a meeting with a handful of executives from the nation’s largest food manufactures, Kennedy released a slickly-produced video that promised more change would be on the way, saying companies were taking his “MAHA” movement seriously.

“They understand they have a new sheriff in town,” Kennedy said.

He did not share any details about what was discussed at the meeting.

Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone and Mike Stobbe contributed.

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By MIKE STOBBE

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s top public health agency is inviting about 180 employees back to work, about two weeks after laying them off.

Emails went out Tuesday to some Centers for Disease Control and Prevention probationary employees who got termination notices last month, according to current and former CDC employees.

A message seen by the AP was sent with the subject line, “Read this e-mail immediately.” It said that “after further review and consideration,” a Feb. 15 termination notice has been rescinded and the employee was cleared to return to work on Wednesday. “You should return to duty under your previous work schedule. We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused,” it said.

About 180 people received reinstatement emails, according to two federal health officials who were briefed on the tally but were not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity.

It’s not clear how many of them returned to work Wednesday. And it’s also unclear whether the employees would be spared from further widespread job cuts that are expected soon across government agencies.

The CDC is the latest federal agency trying to coax back workers soon after they were dismissed as part of President Donald Trump’s and billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting purge. Similar reversals have been made among employees responsible for medical device oversight, food safety, bird flu response, nuclear weapons and national parks.

The Atlanta-based CDC is charged with protecting Americans from outbreaks and other public health threats. Before the job cuts, the agency had about 13,000 employees.

Last month, Trump administration officials told the CDC that nearly 1,300 of the agency’s probationary employees would be let go. That tally quickly changed, as the number who actually got termination notices turned out to be 700 to 750.

With 180 more people now being told they can return, the actual number of CDC employees terminated so far would seem to stand somewhere around 550. But federal health officials haven’t confirmed any specifics.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month pledged “ radical transparency ” at the department, but HHS officials have not provided detail about CDC staff changes and did not respond to emailed requests on Tuesday and Wednesday. An agency spokesman, Andrew Nixon, previously told the AP only that CDC had more full-time employees after the job cuts than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those who received reinstatement emails included outbreak responders in two fellowship programs — a two-year training that prepares recent graduates to enter the public health workforce through field experience and a laboratory program that brings in doctorate-holding professionals.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock celebrated the reinstatements, but said it’s not enough.

“Today’s announcement is a welcome relief, but until all fired CDC employees are restored, our country’s public health and national security will continue to be at risk,” Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, said in a statement Wednesday.

Associated Press writer Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.